With a single vote, the pound plummets and Britain's no longer fifth largest economy in world

British voters have called it quits, defying their own leaders and ignoring the dire warnings of economists and the rest of the political establishment. On Thursday, Brits voted to leave the European Union, a result that will have far-reaching ramifications around the globe.

The British pound had already plummeted to a thirty-year low by the time the BBC called the result at dawn on Friday.

Most analysts had predicted that voters in “this pragmatically minded country” would ultimately wish to remain, thus keeping Britain “a pillar of the global economic and political order,” reports the Washington Post, but as the night crept on, results, which revealed a vast divide between metropolitan centers and small, rural towns, proved otherwise.